Mark Mulder won his second straight start Sunday, in St. Petersburg. Associated Press photo by Steve Nesius

Mark Mulder won his second straight start Sunday, in St. Petersburg. Associated Press photo by Steve Nesius

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In the fifth inning, the A's Greg Myers watched his solo home off Devil Rays starter Ryan Rupe take flight. Associated Press photo by Steve Nesius

In the fifth inning, the A's Greg Myers watched his solo home off Devil Rays starter Ryan Rupe take flight. Associated Press photo by Steve Nesius

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A's ready for series vs. Seattle

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2002-06-03 04:00:00 PDT St. Petersburg, Fla. -- During a two-week stretch against sub-.500s Baltimore and Tampa Bay, the A's have started to make some hay, winning eight of their past 11.

Most encouraging for Oakland is the fact that Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder are beginning to recover their old form, and the A's rotation appears more Big Three than just Big One (Barry Zito, the team's most consistent starter).

On Sunday at Tropicana Field, Mulder won his second straight start, allowing six hits and two runs in 5 2/3 innings, and the A's downed the Devil Rays 4-2 to take three games of the four-game set and finish the road trip with a 4-2 mark.

It's a propitious time for Oakland to be picking up the pace.

Division leader Seattle arrives in town for a four-game series that starts tonight, and while the Mariners are three games up on Anaheim and eight up on the A's, they haven't been playing near the unreal level they sustained last year, when they won 116 games."They haven't taken off and separated themselves from everyone the way they did last year," A's third baseman Eric Chavez said. "This is a big homestand -- you have to beat the guys in front of you, and our pitching looks real good right now. That gives us a chance to get hot."

Along with Mulder's decent outing, the A's also got some heavy lifting from the bullpen on Sunday. In three straight innings, an Oakland reliever came in with runners in scoring position and got the final out. Chad Bradford got a groundout to end the sixth, Mike Venafro did the same to end the seventh and long man Mike Fyhrie, in an unusual one-batter appearance, struck out pinch- hitter Russ Johnson looking to end the eighth.

"I just thought maybe it would be a shot in the arm for Mike to pitch with the game on the line," said manager Art Howe, who bypassed Jeff Tam in Fyhrie's favor.

Billy Koch racked up his 11th save by pitching a scoreless ninth, and at least one Devil Rays hitter was left shaking his head after facing two submariners in Bradford and Venafro, then a long man and finally the 100-mph- throwing Koch. "Their bullpen is probably the funkiest in the league, with all those sidearm guys," first baseman Steve Cox said. "It's weird."

Pitching will be the focus again tonight, when Oakland's starter makes just his second big-league appearance. However, Aaron Harang is focusing only on what he needs to do, rather than the magnitude of the series or the fact that the opposing pitcher is Seattle ace Freddy Garcia.

"I'm going to stick to the same plan, go out and go right at them," Harang said. "They're a very disciplined team -- you can't nitpick and try to go around them. And they have a couple runners on their team, so you have to watch them. But the best way to keep the running game down is to not let them on.

"I had a nice chat with him," Howe said. "I know it's been awhile since he's been out there, but he's got the stuff to do well, and I think he'll be just fine."

The A's enter tonight one game below .500, and their 27-28 record is identical to last year's at this point. But last year, they were already trailing the Mariners by 16 games. Now, a good series would shoot the A's back into contention.

"All the series are pretty big for us, because we got ourselves into a hole, " Oakland first baseman Scott Hatteberg said. "But there's no better time to pull ourselves out of it and gain some ground. We consider ourselves a playoff team, and it's time to get going."